The Big Three credit ratings agencies Fitch, Moodies and Standard and Poor's have come under increasing criticism for failing to correctly evaluate major events. They include the Internet Bubble Burst in 2002, and the state of the investment bank Lehman Brothers, which received a triple A rating just before it went bust in 2008 triggering the credit crunch. Criticism is strongest in Europe which is frequently hit by negative ratings from the agencies, and where there are growing calls for the creation of a European-grown agency. But RFI spoke to Thomas Ferguson , an American economist and political scientist from the University of Massacussets, who has criticized the US agencies at home.